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Senior center tour provides ideas for town officials
By Chris Roark, roarkc@acnpapers.com
Town officials and members of the senior community collected ideas Tuesday during a tour of area senior centers anticipating a Flower Mound facility in the future.
A group of nearly 25, which included town council members, Mayor Jody Smith, parks and recreation staff, architect consultants and members of the Seniors in Motion (SIM) organization, toured senior centers in Lewisville, Carrollton and Farmers Branch.
The tour gave officials a chance to brainstorm since there is a continuous push for a stand-alone senior center in town. Flower Mound's seniors use a room in the Community Activity Center (CAC) for the majority of activities, and they say the space isn't large enough.
“We're talking about doing other things with the senior center, like having a multi-purpose area for meetings or wedding receptions,” said council member Tom Hayden. “And maybe even combine it for a cultural arts facility. So if we just have a senior center, I think that 18,000 square feet would be a good size, but if we do more, then maybe 22,000 to 30,000 square feet would be a good size.”
Denis Toth, president of SIM, agreed that Farmers Branch's size is the one to shoot for.
“Farmers Branch's facility was the one that was similar to what Flower Mound desires,” Toth said. “That way, we can design it with expansion in mind."
Mayor Pro Tem Jean Levenick said space consideration is important for a program that can easily grow in Flower Mound.
“This tour made us realize that we need more space,” she said. “Each of the facilities we visited has between 200 and 400 people using it every day, and I think that we can, too.”
Members of the tour also noted amenities that they would like to see in Flower Mound's facility. Levenick said the welcoming design was one of the most important things she saw.
“We walked into one of those facilities, and we got the feeling that we were welcome there,” Levenick said. “That's a good fit for Flower Mound because the seniors in our community are the same way. We didn't feel closed in or institutionalized. We want a warm, welcoming place that feels like home.”
Levenick and Hayden added that two of the centers had a library with a fireplace and a large seating area.
“That's a good place to gather and establish relationships,” Hayden said.
Many in the group praised one of the centers for having a large dance floor, which could be used for dance events or exercise classes.
Other areas the group saw and would like to see addressed in Flower Mound's center included a large kitchen and, like Carrollton's, a beautiful view to the outside.
Toth said it's also important to consider large storage space, something other senior center officials said they wish they had addressed. He also said having many removable walls will add to the flexibility of the center.
Flower Mound is in the beginning stages of crafting its Parks and Open Space Master Plan update. Advocates for the senior center hope the facility is included in the plan, but they say that's only one step in the process.
“We have to find a definite location on the parks master plan,” said Hayden, who is one of several who say the center should be located just east of the CAC. Others have said another option is within the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) District, which is located along the FM 1171 and FM 2499 corridor.
“Then the town council needs to make it a priority. And after we have a design, we need to talk about how we're going to pay for it. We need to determine how much of this will come from grants and how much will come from debt. And do we take this to the voters?”
The master plan update is expected to be complete by May.
“I'm very pleased that we've gotten the attention of the town,” Toth said. “So this is something that we can work toward. We just need to encourage the town to move this along as quickly as possible.”
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